macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Living a Clean Life – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Living a Clean Life

And now for the weather report: it is still crazy hot! 8:45 on a Sunday and I am already thinking of spending my day submerged in the pool.  Not the original plan. I have reports to write. I want to ride my bike again. I even planned on doing some cleaning.

I admit it. When faced with the urge to clean I generally breath deeply, distract myself and urge surf until it passes.

However, I also recognize there are some of you who like to clean, for whom clutter is not a natural state, who get a sense of satisfaction from clean counter tops. I will never understand you, but God bless you.

A colleague has a client who is losing her vision. She is worried about not getting every speck of dust and not being able to be the Uber housekeeper she once was. My colleague came to me for suggestions! He don’t know me real well; do he? 😉

In an effort to serve as many populations and as many needs as possible, I decided to do a search (does doing research on cleaning count as cleaning? If it does, I am right there!). I found a post put out by the American Federation of the Blind on their VisionAware page. The very apropos title was Housecleaning Tips. I will refer you to the article itself for the specifics, but it appears to me they make use of organization and planning skills once again. Can’t get enough of those organization and planning skills when you are visually impaired.

The article also mentioned a manual Clean to the Touch, published by teachers at Perkins. What is in the article the link will take you to is an interview with the authors. I felt for sure it would be available as an audiobook through BARD but I could not find it. Maybe someone else should look too. I also did not find it in Amazon books. The Perkins on-line store does sell the manual for $35 probably plus shipping and handling. It comes in a variety of formats including audio, large print and Braille. [Lin/Linda here: I found one reference to it through Colorado Talking Book Library if anyone is subscribed there.]

I found a general manual for coping put out by Cornell University. It has a section on keeping house. The site is Household Tips for Low Vision – Environmental Geriatrics. Environmental Geriatrics????? That’s a catchy phrase.

The ever popular ‘University of YouTube’ comes through again with an over two-hour video on “how do blind people clean the house?”. These guys should probably start giving continuing education hours considering how much good and useful stuff you can find there.

So there are some references for keeping a clean house even if you don’t see so well. Let us know if you have any other suggestions.

Remember, one of my (many) guidelines in life: free is good. Try the free resources first. If you have $35 (plus shipping and handling) you don’t know why to do with, try the manual from Perkins and report back, please. Since I have no burning desire to eradicate dust bunnies, I do not own it, have not read it and am not recommending it. Just something I found online.

And on that note, all of this talking about cleaning has just worn me out! I think I will go put on my bathing suit! Have a good day??

Written 8/15/2016

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